


Kathy’s Most (Un)Excellent Adventures

by Masqueradeflower



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-21
Updated: 2018-06-22
Packaged: 2019-05-26 12:12:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15000635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Masqueradeflower/pseuds/Masqueradeflower
Summary: Kathy Martin never expected to have to leave her friends and life in San Francisco. Now that she's in Hawkins, she's trying to do the best with what's she's got. Making friends is the first thing on her agenda. As Kathy will soon find out Hawkins, Indiana has more interesting things in mind for Kathy and her new friends.





	1. She's a Rainbow

**Author's Note:**

> Well, this story is something I've been thinking about for a while. And I thought I'd finally make it happen. I hope you all enjoy the story. It begins shortly before season 1 starts. I really hope to take this story all the way to season 2 ( I already have some of it mapped out in my head), but we'll see how this goes. As always thanks for reading and if you can review!

She's a Rainbow

She comes in colors ev'rywhere/She combs her hair/She's like a rainbow/Coming, colors in the air  
Oh, everywhere/She comes in colors -The Rolling Stones

Kathy Martin was currently sitting in her 1977 yellow Jeep hoping that a sinkhole would open up and carry her down with it. With her head on the steering wheel, Kathy took deep breaths in and out singing along to a song playing on the radio hoping to calm her nerves. Today was Kathy's first day at her new school, in her new town, in her new life. Currently, everything was a little too new for Kathy's taste. Not that it mattered to anyone but her. Did her family ask her if she would like to move to a new state and start school halfway through her first semester of junior year?

With a groan, Kathy took the key out of the ignition and sat back in the driver's seat. She leaned over to the passenger seat and grabbed her backpack and put it on her lap. Closing her eyes she took one last deep breath and opened the door. Getting out of the car Kathy gently closed her door and looked at the front entrance of the school. She smoothed out her Kinks t-shirt and scuffed her Keds on the pavement. "Here we go"

Kathy gripped her backpack strap tighter as she maneuvered her way through the sea of people in the halls. Taking her schedule out of the back pocket of her jeans Kathy looked for her locker number until she was able to see it. Walking slowly and carefully through the hallway Kathy made her way until she was finally able to locate her locker. She put in the combination to open the locker but aggravatingly found that it wouldn't open. As she tried to struggle to open the stubborn locker door she felt a tap on her shoulder.

"You have to push it up and then pull the door open"

Kathy looked up to see a girl with short red hair and a kind face. Doing as she was advised Kathy was able to open the door. "You're a lifesaver, thank you." At that comment, the girl smile brightened and she stuck out her hand "I'm Barbara". Grasping her hand she gave it friendly shake "Kathy".

As Kathy put some books into her locker Barbara leaned against her own locker. "You're new here right?"

Kathy gave a breathy laugh and turned to look at Barbara "What gave it away?" Closing her locker door Kathy took out her schedule to look at her classes. Barbara stuck out her hand and Kathy gave her the schedule. Scanning her eyes over the paper Barbara smiled "You have two classes with me. Your first class is right around the corner" The bell rang and Barbara quickly handed her back the schedule. "I'll see you later!"

"Bye, and thanks again!" Kathy looked back down at her schedule and looked at all her classes. It looked like standard classes and Kathy was getting ready to head to her first class when she noticed what her last period was- photo. Photo? Kathy couldn't take a decent picture to save her life, let alone be expected to develop one. She shook her head and started walking to her first class and decided that was one problem she would put off until the last minute.

Most of Kathy's day went by in a repetitive blur. All her teachers had her stand in the front of her class and introduce herself. By her third class, Kathy had figured out a speech that she could repeat to all of her other classes. "Hi, I'm Kathy. I'm from Reseda, California and I'm really excited to be here at Hawkins". Most noticeably most of her classmates paid little attention to her and most if not all managed to roll their eyes when she said she was excited to be here.

It wasn't until lunch rolled around that Kathy started to actually feel really alone. She hadn't seen Barbara and she really didn't want to appear too clingy. So this left Kathy with only one option-eating lunch in her car. With one of her personal mixtapes playing in the car, Kathy reclined her seat and laid down. Humming quietly to It Ain't Easy by David Bowie, she picked up her trapper keeper and opened it to see pictures of her friends taped inside the binder. Lynne, Grace, Johnny, and Kathy were spread throughout the binder smiling and reminding her of where she wasn't.

Kathy sat up and turned down the radio. This wasn't Kathy, she was a vibrant, optimistic, and caring person. If her friends could see her now, they would tell her to 'man the hell up and embrace your new life'. Starting now that was exactly what Kathy was going to do. Glancing at her watch Kathy grabbed her backpack and headed to her next class. Unfortunately for Kathy, her new outlook on life was about to be tested. Her procrastination towards her photo class was no longer an option.

As she walked into the class she noticed that there were only a couple of other students there and most of them just looked like they were ready to get the hell out of there. Kathy took a seat in the back and hoped that she wouldn't be required to do anything to difficult on her first day. The teacher, who looked just as tired, if not more, than the rest of the class spoke in a long exasperating way.

"Alright, class. Today we are going to be developing the film that we have been working on. This will be a precursor to the final semester project that will count for half of your grade in the class so start finalizing your ideas. Get to work."

Kathy apprehensively looked around and wondered what the hell she was going to do. As the rest of the class grabbed their film and walked into the dark room Kathy walked up to the teacher in hopes of trying to figure out something that would help her not fail this class.

"Excuse me, Mr. Thompson?"

Without looking up at her he continued to sort through some paperwork. "Yes?"

Biting her lip Kathy then continued "You see it's my first day Mr. Thompson so I was wondering if I could possible for me to get another project to work on, or at least an extension-"

"What did you say your name was?"

"I didn't. My names Kathy and-"

"Listen, Kitty,"

"Kathy"

Mr. Thompson looked up at Kathy "Kate if I give you a different assignment than the rest of the class that would just make things harder for me. That means another rubric, coming up with another assignment, you chose this class for a reason right?"

"Well, actually-"

"So you see my point, Karen. Here. You take this film and you practice developing some pictures. You still have the rest of the semester to figure out what you want your project to be. That's the best I can do. Get to work".

Kathy took the film rolls and walked into the dark room with frustration. Most of the students were already a quarter of the way done with developing their pictures. Looking around to see if anyone would give her some direction she found no one. Kathy walked up to a girl leaning over a sink filling up a container as said: "Do you know what I'm supposed to do with these?"

The girl looked up at Kathy like she had grown another head. Speaking slowly, as if Kathy had a problem understanding simple concepts, she said "You have to open them first. You go into that room and open them and put them into a canister." She pointed at circular canister on a shelf and then pointed at the door. " Biting her tongue so she wouldn't say something she would regret later she muttered a quick "Thanks" and walked away.

As she walked away Kathy heard her say "What an airhead" Her blood now boiling Kathy walked up to the door. Quickly, she noticed that the door was closed she knocked on the door.

"One second!"

Kathy noticed the door open and she walked into the pitch black room. How the hell was she supposed to do anything in the dark? Blindly walking to a corner of the room she felt around until she felt a table to put the film rolls and canister down. What was she supposed to do now?

As the minutes ticked by Kathy blindly waited around willing her mind to somehow come up with what to do.

"Are you- are you almost done?"

Startled Kathy jumped and managed to knock over one on the film rolls.

"Are you alright?"

Stumbling in the dark on her knees she tried to find the fallen film roll. "No- Yes! I'm fine. It's just so damn dark in here I forgot anyone else was in here. Sorry." Finding the film roll she carefully stood back up and placed it back on the table.

It took a beat for the other person to reply before they asked a question. "Is it fine if I open the door now then?"

Kathy thought for a second. She hadn't even done whatever the hell she was supposed to do in here. She could try asking for help again, what could go wrong? Well, besides the fact that she was in a pitch black room alone with a stranger- a guy stranger by the sound of the voice.

"Actually, I was wondering if you could tell me exactly what I'm supposed to do in here?"

There was a long pause that made Kathy a bit nervous that she was going to be called an airhead again. Assuming that was going to be the way that the conversation was going to go she spoke at the same time as the stranger.

"Nevermind-"

"What do you mean-"

They both paused. "Sorry" they both managed out.

Kathy took a breath "Look, I'm just- I'm new here and I have no idea how to take a decent picture let alone how to develop film! I just, I didn't even get to sign up for classes this is just what they gave me. And I'm not an airhead I swear, I just have no idea what I'm doing and a little help would be nice. So will you help me so that you can save me from making more of a fool of myself?"

Kathy searched the darkness hoping that whoever the person in the room with her was going to give her a break and help her out.

"How many rolls of film do you have?"

"Two"

"I'm going to walk over to you and I'll show you what you have to do."

Kathy stuck her arm out in hopes of figuring out where the other person was. When her hand touched his chest she immediately drew her hand back. "Um".

"Where is your film?"

She, against her better judgment, reached out her hand and was able to find his hand. She led him to the desk and put the film rolls in his hand. "First you have to open it. You use this to open the lid like you would a can" He grabbed Kathy's hand and put the opener in his hand. When she was done she handed it back to him. " You keep that one I have another one. This way you can open up one for yourself. "

Kathy nodded just to realize that he couldn't see her. "Thank you"

"Now open the can and carefully take out the film roll. Do you have a canister?"

"Yeah, I have one."

"Ok, now you have to wrap the film around the canister. Make sure that it's not bunched up and you should be fine."

Kathy blindly tried to wrap the film into the canister but she was struggling to get it wrapped around.

"Here"

Guiding her hands he showed her how to wrap the film around the canister. "Now just keep doing that until you get to the end and then cover the canister and you're done"

Kathy finished wrapping around her film and smiled to herself. "I did it!" Kathy tried to fight the urge to run up and hug him like she would with any of her other friends.

"That wasn't so hard right?"

"No, thank you so much really."

"Its- don't worry about it"

The door suddenly opened on them and Kathy had to put her hand in front of her face to shield her eyes from the harshness of the light. "Hey airhead and freak class is over now"

Kathy, clenching her first, took a deep breath to steady her nerves and not talk back to the girl.

When the girl left them Kathy was the first to walk out of the room. She waited so that she could see who had helped her out.

Timidly, a tall, attractive, shaggy-haired brunette guy walked out of the room. It looked as if he was trying to look anywhere but at Kathy.

Kathy bit back a smile and passed the canister into one hand and stuck out the other for him to shake.

"I'm Kathy. It's nice to actually see you"

He looked at her hand before looking back at her. He had a confused look but he took Kathy's hand nonetheless. "Jonathan"

"Well, Jonathan I think you just became my new favorite person"

He turned his head so that he wasn't looking straight at her.

"Do you want to walk out together?"

He gave her that confused look again before he said "Alright"

Kathy collected her things and waited for Jonathan to do the same. Smiling at him she noticed that he was biting back a smile. Walking out to the parking lot Kath pointed at her Jeep.

"This is me"

He silently nodded his head.

Kathy opened her car door and tossed her backpack into the passenger seat. She was about to get into her car when she turned and looked at him. He was looking at her with a kind of calculating look as if she might say something unkind at any movement.

"Thanks again for helping me out back there. You really didn't have to- I mean you lost out on your time to work on your own film." Drumming her fingers against the car door she looked at Jonathan.

He looked a bit bashful and Kathy swore she'd never seen anything cuter. "Really it wasn't a big deal" he stuffed his hand into the front pockets of his jeans and he looked down at the pavement.

Kathy bit her lip and quickly dug around into her glove compartment. "Here. My friends from back home used to consider this a form of currency so this is yours. I hope you like it- I mean if you don't that's fine. But I don't know you might I- I'm rambling again aren't I?" Kathy looked up and saw that Jonathan was now struggling to hold in a smile.

Kathy handed him a mixtape with the title 'Golden Gate Dreaming' written hastily across the front. Jonathan took the mixtape and gave the faintest hint of a smile. Kathy now made a promise to herself that she would see that boy smile a full 20-watt smile if it was the last thing she did.

Smiling brightly Kathy got into the car and put her keys into the ignition. Jonathan took a few steps back as she backed out of the parking space. "I guess I'll see you around"

Jonathan, still holding onto the mixtape, looked up at Kathy. "Yeah. Yeah, I'll see you around."

Smiling Kathy turned the car and drove off. On the drive home, Kathy realized that the day actually hadn't been so bad. In fact, if she thought about it, it felt like a new chapter in her life. Turning up the radio Kathy was ready to get home get started on the insane workload she had ahead of her. Hawkins, it seemed, would be a lot more interesting than she thought it would be.


	2. A Day In the Life

As Jonathan Byers watched Kathy drive away he couldn’t help but feel confused at the turn of events. He turned over the cassette tape in his hands and briefly wondered why she would ever think about giving him a gift. All he did was help her out a little during photo. It wasn’t as if he didn’t do anything that literally everyone else in the class knew how to do. Still, it was nice to have someone look at him as him as if he wasn’t a freak. 

Getting into his car Jonathan again found himself looking at the little black cassette tape. Should he play it? Sighing, Jonathan tossed the cassette tape into his glove compartment and closed it. Kathy, he thought objectively, could be considered attractive. With her olive skin, brown eyes, and wavy black hair she was nice to look at. Still, Jonathan figured that as soon as she started talking with the other kids in school she wouldn’t give him the time of day. So, it was better to not humor himself into thinking that anything could come out of what happened today. 

Jonathan was the resident freak of Hawkins High, and if Kathy didn’t want to be a social pariah she wouldn’t acknowledge his existence ever again. 

 

Looking around her house Kathy released she was going to have to get used to being alone. Back in Reseda when her parents were away all the time from work or vacations she could just go over to one of her friends’ houses (typically Lynne’s). Now, Kathy didn’t really have anyone to go to. Kathy thought briefly about calling Lynn, but she thought better of it. If she called her Lynn would just want to gossip away about what it was like and she would a full roster of all the “cute” guys. 

Tossing her plate into the sink Kathy walked over to her record player and put on her mom’s old George Harrison’s album All Things Must Pass. With the music playing in the background Kathy got to work cleaning up the kitchen. Kathy made quick work of cleaning the counters and washing, drying, and putting the dishes away. Just as Kathy was throwing the last of the trash away she heard a knock on her door. Quickly, she turned down her record player and cautiously made her way to the door.

“Who is it?”

“It’s your neighbors! The Sinclairs!”

Kathy opened the door and was welcomed with warm smiles from the family. Mr. and Mrs. Sinclair greeted her while their two children looked as if they would rather be anywhere else but here. 

“Are your parents home?”

Truth or lie Kathy thought. Better go with the ladder. 

“There at work right now. I’m sorry that they missed you. I”m Kathy by the way”

“Aren’t you sweet Kathy? It’s a pleasure to meet you” Mrs. Sinclair smiled “Well we thought we’d bring over some food. I know we should have done this when you first got here, but we’ve had our hands full with the kids.”

Kathy took the food that was being offered to her and discreetly examined it. It looked to be some kind of chicken with rice. Smiling, Kathy looked back up at Mrs. Sinclair “Don’t worry about it, it was really nice of you to bring this over. I’m sure it's going to taste amazing”

Mrs. Sinclair’s smile got bigger if it was possible. “Well, I’m just glad that someone is finally going to appreciate my hard work.” At that, she looked over at her two kids who seemed to be having a silent argument with each other. 

“Thank you again, Mrs. Sinclair. Please let me know if there's ever anything that I could help you with in the future.”

At that statement, Mr. Sinclar developed a mysterious glint in his eye. “Actually, we would really love a babysitter for the kids every once in a while. You go to Hawkins High right? I noticed your car out front we’d really love it if you could drop Lucas off to school. His tire is out on his bike and until we can get a replacement there isn’t anyone able to take him”

“Dad! I don’t need a babysitter I’m twelve! If anyone needs a sitter its the baby over here” Lucas pointed roughly at his younger sister who had put her hands on her hips ready to give back a biting remark.

Kathy quickly decided to make a rash decision “Sure Mr. Sinclair that wouldn’t be a problem”  
Lucas gave Kathy a death glare and she quickly averted her gaze and turned back to Mr. and Mrs. Sinclar. 

“Thank you so much, Kathy. We’ll send Lucas over tomorrow morning so that you can take him to school. Don’t worry the schools are right next to each other so it won’t be out of your way.”

“Sounds great Ms. Sinclair. I’ll you around.”

Mrs. Sinclair leaned in to give Kathy a tight embrace. “Have a good night now Kathy!”

Closing the door she could hear the Sinclair children bickering with their parents as they made the walk back to their house. Oh, Kathy, what did you get yourself into? Putting the chicken into the refrigerator Kathy made her way to her room. If there was one thing that Kathy knew is that being nice always seemed to bite her right in the ass. 

 

When morning came Kathy found herself anxiously sitting on her sofa. Playing with her keys Kathy debated over the idea that she should just tell the Sinclairs that taking their son to school wasn’t going to be able to work out for her. Kathy was just about to work up the nerve to go over to the Sinclairs and tell them exactly that when there was a knock on her door. Sighing, Kathy got up and put her backpack on. Opening the door, she was greeted with Lucas looking as if he was dreading this more than she was. He rolled his eyes and made is way to Kathy’s jeep. 

With a look, Kathy proceeded to lock the front door and made her way the driver's seat. Lucas made a show of getting in the car and slamming the door. At that, Kathy looked over at him harshly. Turning to face Lucas she said: “Look, kid, this wasn’t exactly part of my plan either ok? So here’s how this is going to go down. I’m going to drive you to school and you're going to sit back and relax. You don’t even have to talk to me if you don’t want to, but I will not have you disrespect my car.”

Kathy looked pointedly at Lucas waiting for a response. “Yeah ok. Sorry- about your door.”

Smiling Kathy turned in her seat to the face the steering wheel. “Don’t start none won’t be none kid.” She winked at Lucas and she could see the hint of a smile forming before he hid it so that it still looked like he was angry. Kathy gave a breathy laugh and turned on the radio before she pulled out of the driveway. 

From the looks of it, Kathy and Lucas were going to be having a very eventful time together.

 

When Jonathan walked into school he didn’t expect much to be different from any another day. Most of the kids didn’t even bother to notice he was there and the ones that did would gawk at him or call him a freak. Today was definitely like any other day. Except she was there. Kathy. All bright smiles and talking to one of Nancy Wheeler’s friends- Barbara. With his head down he quickly walked to his locker and opened it so that his face was hidden by the door. Jonathan wouldn’t say that he was one to openly stare at people, if anything, he was more of an observer. 

Hiding his face discreetly he noticed that Carol, one of the worst people in Hawkins, was chatting away with Kathy. Closing his locker he headed off to his first class. If Jonathan was sure about anything, it was that once someone was friends with Carol, then they weren’t the type of people he wanted to associate himself with. Jonathan decided that if that was who Kathy really was, a nicely disguised Carol, then he wouldn’t waste any more of his time on her. 

 

Kathy could say that she was pretty good at reading people. Lynne used to say that it was both a gift and a curse because that meant she never really dated anyone because she could focused too much on ‘who they were on the inside’ instead of just their looks. But to Kathy, it really came in handy when navigating the jungle that was high school.

In fact, it was really coming in handy at this present moment in time. Kathy decided she would place nice with Carol until she had definitive proof that she really was a horrible person. But as far as Kathy could tell, so far all Carol really did was tell who she should and should not hang out with if she wanted to be popular. 

Closing her locker door harshly she turned to Carol “Look, Carol, its been really nice talking, but I really should get to class now.” With that Kathy skirted past Carol and made her way to class. 

School for Kathy wasn’t necessarily hard, it just required a lot of work. And with the amount of work she had had to do so far to catch up, she was starting to think she was in over her head. In between classes Barbara, who had since told Kathy that she preferred to be called Barb, offered Kathy a seat with her and her friend Nancy for lunch. Kathy had smiled and Barb and told her she was sorry, but she just had to much work that she had to do. Barb had smiled and told her that school came first and that Kathy was welcome to eat lunch with them any time.

Kathy had found herself spending her whole lunch hour in the library trying to complete as much of her homework as possible. Luckily, with the night before and today Kathy had been able to complete a sizeable chunk. 

As the day continued on Kathy once again found herself in her photo class. She wouldn’t say that she was necessarily excited by it, but she was looking forward to seeing Jonathan again. If only to find out how he had liked her mixtape. But Kathy had found that during the whole class period Jonathan had avoided her as if she were the plague. Kathy was so busy trying to figure out what his damage might be that she wasn’t able to get any of her work done. The final bell rang and as Kathy was gathering her stuff she noticed Jonathan bolting out of the classroom from the corner of her eye. 

Kathy, wanting to know what the hell was going on decided to follow him to his car. Jonathan was fast- but Kathy was faster. 

“What’s your damage? My music taste that bad?”

Jonathan paused at his car door with his back facing Kathy. 

“Are you really just going to ignore me?” Kathy put a hand on her hip and had the other gripping her backpack strap.  
“Look” Jonathan turned around but was still refusing to make eye contact with her “I know that your friends with Carol, and I really just don’t want the drama”

Kathy was thrown off. What did Carol have to do with anything?

“I’m not friends with her.”

“I saw you talking to her this morning. And if you want to do was best for you-you won’t be talking to the freak anymore”

Kathy tried to process what he just told her as quickly as possible, but she really didn’t understand why Jonathan was trying to make her come off as a bad person.

“I’m not friends with Carol. She walked up to me this morning and started going off about who I shouldn’t hang out with. But, in case you haven’t noticed, I can think for myself. I really just thought- you seemed sweet Jonathan and I was hoping we could be friends. But, if you’d rather think the worst of people before you even get to know them I don’t think we can.” 

Kathy walked back to her car leaving Jonathan to think about what she said. Tossing her backpack into her car she drove off to pick up Lucas. This day really hadn’t gone the way Kathy had planned.


	3. I'm Not Like Everybody Else

There weren’t many times in Jonathan’s life where he could say he felt like a complete dick, but today was definitely one of them. During his entire shift at work, all Jonathan could think about how wrong the conversation had gone. How was he supposed to know that Kathy was really trying to be his friend and not try and treat him like everybody else did? Nobody had ever actually taken a genuine interest in him before, why should anything change now?

By the time he got home, Jonathan had time to eat dinner with his mom and Will. He was pretty sure they knew something was up with him, but neither of them really wanted to pressure him into talking about it just now. He cleared the table, washed the dishes, and put them on the rack. His mom was putting away the leftovers while Will was in his room doing homework. 

“So, do you want to talk about it?”

His mom and sat down at the table and pulled out a chair for him to sit on. Placing the last dish on the rack Jonathan slowly made his way over to sit down.

“I’m fine mom really”

Sighing, his mom clasped her hands together on the table “Jonathan, you know that whatever’s bothering you, you can talk about it with me right? I’m your mom it's part of the job description.” With a small smile, his mom looked up at him.

Jonathan knew that he could talk to his mom about anything, but she had enough to worry about. A little drama at school should be the least of her worries. 

“Mom, really I’m fine. I guess I’m just a little stressed over my project for my photo class. It’s not a big deal I swear.”

Skeptically his mom looked back at him “Are you sure that’s all it is?”

Jonathan managed a small smile “Yeah mom, really”

Getting up from the chair his mom managed an ‘ok’ before she hugged him. 

“You should clean up and get some sleep”

“Sure thing mom” Jonathan’s thoughts once again drifted back to the conversation with Kathy. Kathy had first approached him by saying that she must have a bad taste in music. This left Jonathan to remember the forgotten mixtape left in the glove compartment of his car. “Mom, I actually forgot something in my car I’ll be right back”

Giving him a quizzical look his mom simply nodded and went back to packing up the last of the leftovers. 

Opening the car door, Jonathan fumbled around looking for the mixtape until he saw the familiar black cassette. Putting it in his pocket he closed the car door and walked back into the house. “Night mom!” 

He didn’t wait for a reply from his mother as he walked into his room and closed the door. Jonathan looked around his room for his walkman and proceeded to put the cassette tape in. Putting on his headphones he laid down on the bed wondering what type of person this would reveal Kathy to be. Music could say a lot about a person and Jonathan hoped that her mixtape could tell him enough about her to somehow make it right. 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
The next morning Kathy was determined not to let Jonathan get the better of her. She would be the bigger person and talk to him in class if the need arose and treat him like she treated everybody else. She wasn’t the bad person Jonathan was making her out to be and she refused to become one. 

Kathy was putting the last of her books in her backpack when she heard a knock on the door. Realizing that she was still expected to take Lucas to and from school for the time being she quickly ran to the front door. Lucas looked more pleased to see Kathy today compared to yesterday. “Here my mom said this was for you”

Taking the paper bag from Lucas, Kathy looked inside to find an assortment of snacks inside that made Kathy smile brightly. “Tell your mom I said thank you, and that the chicken was delicious. Now come on or we’re both going to be late”  
Kathy motioned for them to get in the car and they both buckled up as Kathy started to pull out of the driveway feeling grateful that it was finally Friday. 

“So…”

Kathy glanced at Lucas who looked like he actually wanted to have a conversation with her. Kathy tried to quickly think about what exactly they could talk about that wasn’t going to be awkward. 

“See any good movies lately?” Kathy wanted to take back the words as soon as they left her mouth. Small talk, really?

He looked at her for a second before thinking about what to say. He quietly began to drum his fingers on the backpack on his lap. “Not really”

Great. Kathy was just about to turn on the radio in hopes of drowning out the awkward silence. 

“The last movie I saw was Return of the Jedi” 

Kathy looked at Lucas and smiled. This, this she could work with. “What did you think about it? Personally, I don’t think the story was as good as Empire, but the scene where Luke flips during the Battle of the Sarlacc and Leia choking Jabba the Hutt to death made it totally worth it”

Glancing back at Lucas, Kathy could see that he was looking with wide eyes and his mouth agape. “You like Star Wars?”

“I grew up on Star Trek, but I have to say Star Wars is pretty rad” 

Lucas only proceeded to look at her in shock. 

“You alright there kid?”

Finally displaying an emotion other than shock Lucas proceeded to bombard Kathy with questions about the movies. She was asked questions like ‘What did you think about Luke and Leia being siblings?’ ‘In Empire, how do you think they managed to cross the void without having a hyperdrive?’ and what seemed to be one of the most important questions for Kathy was: ‘What’s your opinion on Ewoks?’

Needless to say, it was a long car ride for Kathy, but she was glad that she was starting to get somewhere with Lucas. If she managed to only make friends with a twelve-year-old Kathy believed it was sad, but not as bad as being completely alone. When they finally arrived at the school Kathy saw a group of kids run up to her car. 

A curly haired boy with missing front teeth smiled up at her “So you're Lucas’ new babysitter”

Lucas looking embarrassed shouted back “Shut up Dustin! She’s my neighbor!” 

A boy with black hair turned to Dustin and in a teasing sing-song voice said: “Right your babysitter” They both started laughing as Lucas got out of the car. 

Kathy couldn’t help but chuckle at the situation. “Have a good day Lucas, see you here after school”

“Bye Kathy” he grumbled. Kathy could see him walking away with his friends towards the school. By the looks of it Lucas was scolding his friends about embarrassing him until they shouted “Will!” and ran up to their friend. Kathy smiled to herself as she drove off to her own school to park her car. 

When she got to her locker it felt as if someone was looking at her, but before she got a chance to turn around Carol leaned herself against one of the other lockers and began whispering something to her: “Look, that freak Jonathan Byers is staring at you” 

Turning around, Kathy could see Jonathan quickly looking away and facing his locker again. When Kathy turned back towards Carol she was ready to let the girl have it. “What makes him so much of a freak?”

Carol sensing something was up, looked down at Kathy “Where do I start? He’s always taking pictures of people, his clothes are hideous, he’s socially stunted, and he’s poor”

Kathy was beginning to see red “Carol, get bent.” Slamming her locker shut she turned to face her. “You are a heinous human being, and frankly, putting people down only makes you look like a dick. We’re done now.”

With her head held high, Kathy walked to her first class of the day ignoring the whispers and stares of the people around her. If there was one thing that Kathy didn’t like it was bullies.   
\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Kathy’s day couldn’t be described as being pleasant, but she didn’t regret what she said to Carol. However, Kathy learned that Carol was not someone that you wanted to get on the bad side of. Her boyfriend, Tommy, was the complete worst. The influence that these two had over the school was not to be underestimated. Kathy was in no way winning any popularity contests, but she stuck by her morals and she couldn't care less. 

By the time her photo class rolled she couldn’t be bothered to interact with anyone. And because she still didn’t know what the hell she was doing, it turned into a pretty unproductive hour. The entire class period she could feel people looking at her, but no one's gaze had the intensity of Jonathan Byers. 

When the bell finally rang Kathy quickly gathered her stuff and made her way to her car. Kathy had managed to open her door and toss her backpack into the back seats before she heard someone yell out her name. Kathy turned to see Jonathan quickly jogging up to her “Kathy wait!”

With one hand on the door, Kathy decided to wait and see what all looks had been about. “What can I do for you, Jonathan? Because if you’re here to tell me more-”  
“No, look Kathy- Just. I’m sorry ok? I shouldn’t have thought anything bad about you before I actually got to know you. I’m just not used to anyone trying to actually talk to me and not at me. Can we just start over? I’ll even help you with your photo project because by the looks of your gonna need it”

Pursing her lips Kathy thought about it. Sticking her hand out she said: “I’m Kathy Martin” Jonathan looked at her before he took her hand and gave it a shake “Jonathan Byers”.

With a smile, Kathy said “It’s nice to meet you, Jonathan. And for your information, I’m not that helpless with photo.” 

At that, Jonathan gave a laugh which made Kathy’s smile brighter “Really? Cause you could have fooled me” Pausing for a moment, Jonathan pulled something out of his backpack. “Here. I listened to your tape and it was actually pretty good. I actually really liked the sixth song. But, here’s a tape for you. It's got all the good stuff. You know Bowie, television, joy division. I just thought-let me know if you like it”

Throughout his little speech, Jonathan had slowly lost eye contact with Kathy until he was just looking at the cassette tape in his hand. Kathy was only trying to bite back her smile the longer he spoke. Taking the tape from his hand she looked up at him “I’m glad you liked it. The Sound, the guys who sing the song you liked, are really great. Thanks for this, I’ll be sure to listen to it.”

Slowly, Jonathan’s eyes found their way back to Kathy’s. “I should get to work”

Blinking, Kathy turned to look at her car and back to him “No, yeah, I should get going. I have to pick up my neighbor.” Jonathan nodded his head in understanding and was about to make his way back to his car. Quickly, Kathy reached into her glove compartment and pulled out a pen. “Wait!”

Jonathan turned back to face her while she grabbed his arm. Pulling up his sleeve she wrote down her number on his arm. If Kathy had looked up she would have seen the bright blush forming on Jonathan’s face. 

“I just- if you ever want to talk music or something you have my number.” Kathy began to feel her own face heat up. “It would be nice to, you know, have a friend to talk to” 

Jonathan managed to look down at Kathy and tried to hide his smile “I think we could be friends”

Smiling Kathy looked up at him “Right, well you should get to work and I should go.” Getting into her car Kathy buckled up and looked back at Jonathan before backing out her car. “I’ll see you”

“See you around Kathy”

Biting back her smile Kathy drove off to go pick up Lucas. Kathy would still say that her day could not be described as being pleasant, but it could be described as being surprising, in all the best ways.  
\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
When Kathy arrived at the school to pick up Lucas she could see him talking to all his friends at the front of the school. As Kathy stopped the car she could see all four of them make their way to her.

Raising her eyebrow Kathy looked down at the group. 

“Hey, Kathy today is D&D day and we’re going to play at Mike’s house could you drop us off there?”

Lucas looked to hopeful for Kathy to say no. Letting out a huff she motioned for them to get in the car. Cheering, the group made their way to the back to put their bikes in the trunk before climbing into the car. 

“It’s going to be a tight squeeze, but I think you’ll all fit.” Kathy looked at the boys elbowing each other to try and get comfortable. “All your parents will be ok with this?” Kathy looked into her rearview mirror to gauge their reactions. 

“Oh yeah, our parents would be totally cool with. Right, Mike?” The toothless kid with the red cap smiled up at Kathy. “Yeah our parents would be cool with it”

Kathy looked skeptically at them and could see the other boy in the back looking a little less sure about the situation. “Mhmm” 

“You’re going to have to give me directions to the house”   
“Oh right! Just keep going straight I’ll tell you when to turn.”

“Right”

“So, Kathy, I don’t think We’ve had proper introductions. I’m Dustin the handsome funny one. Sitting next to me is Mike, and sitting next to Mike is Will.”

“Why did you get to have descriptors in your name but not me and Will?”

“Because, Mike!”

“Guys! Settle down back there would you!”

In unison, Mike and Dustin said: “Sorry” and decided to have a quiet conversation with each other in the back. 

“Lucas says you like Star Wars is that true?” Kathy looked to see Will in the back looking shyly at her. 

“She’s totally into it aren’t you Kathy?”

“You could say that” 

Kathy had once again found herself dug into a Star Wars hole that she couldn’t get herself out of. There were lots of different theories and questions thrown at Kathy from all four of the boys that left her feeling a bit overwhelmed. When they finally got to Mike’s house they had somehow talked her into learning how to play D&D. That consisted of a couple hours of blank stares (from Kathy), frustration (mostly from Dustin), and three empty pizza boxes. 

In the end, Kathy really hadn’t learned anything at all about Dungeons and Dragons, still, the boys seemed to be happy that she bothered to try at all. This had led Dustin to proclaim Kathy as the ultimate babysitter, which left Lucas to try and further prove that Kathy was not, in fact, a babysitter, but a helpful neighbor. This only managed to cause the rest of the boys to laugh and further mock Lucas. 

Eventually, Kathy was able to manage to convince the boys to table to the game for another day which erupted in groans but a chorus of agreements. Considering the late hour Kathy had told Dustin and Will that she would drive them home along with Lucas. This only further cemented the idea that Kathy was the ‘Ultimate’ babysitter. When Kathy managed to drop Dustin off, the car had gotten considerably quieter. Lucas, when they arrived at Dustin’ house, had traded seats with Will so he could quote an quote “Not take a nap, but just rest his eyes”

This left Kathy with a quiet drive to Will’s house. He seemed to be looking at some drawings in a notebook and Kathy couldn’t help but glance at them. “Did you draw those?”

Bashfully Will looked up at Kathy “Yeah, I like to draw sometimes”

“Well, they’re really good you should keep drawing. I bet you could probably make a career out of it”

Smiling Will looked up at Kathy “That’s what my mom and brother tell me” 

“They’re totally not wrong” 

When they arrived at Will’s house Kathy could see someone moving around inside, probably his mom. 

“We’ll have a good night kid, it was fun hanging out with a bunch of cool kids”

Will only laughed at that statement and closed Kathy’s door. “Bye Kathy thank you! It was nice meeting you!” Kathy waited until she saw Will walk inside to drive off to take Lucas home. Kathy looked in her rearview mirror and saw Lucas fast asleep. Quietly turning on the radio Kathy smiled and wondered how her life had gotten to this point. At the end of the day, Kathy really couldn't complain.   
\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Jonathan was coming out of his room when his brother Will walked into the house. 

“Hey Will, I thought I was picking you up tonight?”

“Its ok, I got a ride from Lucas’ neighbor.” 

Jonathan watched as Will walked over to the kitchen table and took out his drawings.

“His neighbor?”

“Yeah, but if you ask Dustin and Mike Kathy’s his babysitter”

“Kathy?” It couldn’t be his Kathy, right?

“Yeah, she just moved here from San Francisco. She drove us to Mike’s house and then we taught her how to play Dungeons and Dragons. She wasn’t very good, but she was nice. She liked my drawings and she likes Sci-Fi. She’s cool.”

Jonathan didn’t know what to think as he heard his brother go on about his adventures this evening. Jonathan was hardly ever wrong about people, but it turned out he was being continuously being proven wrong by Kathy whether she knew it or not. Overhearing her defend him against Carol was something that he hadn’t expected. But hanging out with his brother and his friends wasn’t something that he would have ever thought of. Kathy Martin was full of surprises and Jonathan was curious so find out what else he would find out. 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
As a side note here is Kathy’s Mixtape Golden Gate Dreaming  
It Ain’t Easy - David Bowie  
Your Silent Face - New Order  
Dreaming - Blondie  
This Is The Day - The The  
Train in Vain - The Clash  
I Can’t Escape Myself - The Sound  
Stay With Me - Faces  
Lola - The Kinks  
I’m Waiting For The Man - The Velvet Underground


End file.
